Take a journey into space and back in time

The Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute will host a program about the role of the astronomical site in the Pisgah National Forest during the historic Apollo space missions.

The talk will be held at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 9, at PARI, and also include a tour of the campus and, weather permitting, celestial observations using PARI’s telescopes. Astronomer Bob Hayward and Thurburn Barker, director of PARI’s photo archive, will discuss how NASA used the Rosman Tracking Station as the primary East Coast satellite tracking facility in the early days of the space program.

The tracking facility was opened in 1963 and was located on the site PARI now occupies. The campus is 30 buildings on 200 acres and is dedicated to astronomical research and education. It has radio and optical telescopes and earth science instruments.